movie review
Movie reviews for horror fans; from gruesome bone-chillers to dark horror thrillers, a showcase for frightful films that seek to entertain and to terrify.
Short Horror Reviews: Christmas
After reviewing so many heartwarming and sentimental films revolving around Christmas, the more cynical part of me was practically screaming for something dark and twisted. So with the 25th just a day away, I thought it would be fun to scour the vast field of YouTube for some short films that bring horror to the season of candy canes, mistletoe, and mugs of hot cocoa. If you're in the mood for a good Christmasy scare, try curling up in a dark room lit only by Christmas lights and watching these spooky shorts:
Trevor WellsPublished 4 years ago in HorrorA Filmmaker’s Review: “The Nun” (2018)
Okay, so I’m a bit biased because it is one of my favourite films. Valak, as you’ll know, is one of my favourite characters in film history because of her incredible presence. In this film, there are a few main things I’d like to discuss because going through everything would be incredibly difficult and make everything just really long. Let’s talk about my history with this film then, and brace yourselves, it’s a bit of a history. I’ve seen this film over seven times.
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in HorrorThis gothic horror/comedy was a fun trip.
So, at midnight you have to play a game. It’s just something we do when someone new joins the family. I have to revise my opinion about the horror/comedy cross-over urgently after seeing “Monster Party” and “The dead don’t die” this year. “Ready or not” is yet another film that pleasantly surprised me. Really. I had a great time watching this movie. And not only because the lead actress Samara Weaving looks appetizing, but also because of the entertaining content. I appreciated the morbid black humor as well. It’s not such absurd humor as in “The dead don’t die“. But the slapstick-like events that were used in it, resulted in a spontaneous chuckle sometimes. There were also quite a few bloody scenes in it. In short, it was fun watching this horror flick.
Finally a Decent Horror Once Again
Storyline In her much-anticipated foray into the horror-thriller genre, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Taylor Schilling stars in THE PRODIGY as Sarah, a mother whose young son Miles' disturbing behavior signals that an evil, possibly supernatural force has overtaken him. Fearing for her family's safety, Sarah must choose between her maternal instinct to love and protect Miles and a desperate need to investigate what or who is causing his dark turn. She is forced to look for answers in the past, taking the audience on a wild ride; one where the line between perception and reality becomes frighteningly blurry.
Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'The Changeling' (1980)
I honestly can't understand why this movie didn't get just as much recognition as The Exorcist (X1). It wasn't as graphic or controversial as X1 so perhaps that's why it didn't get the notoriety? The thing is, The Changeling is every bit as good. It's got a fantastic cast, with our old friend George C. Scott, and even the venerable Melvin Douglas. So the acting solid and matched by a great character driven plot with solid dialog. The over arcing premises of the plot is clever, and it was the first of it's kind at that time. The story was brilliantly plotted, tho a bit poorly paced. And while there are a few questions sort of just left to interpretation, the plot is strongly devoid of holes.
Reed AlexanderPublished 4 years ago in Horror'Doctor Sleep' Film Review
Mike Flanagan takes on the job of adapting Stephen King’s novel, titled Doctor Sleep, but there is a catch: Flanagan’s film exists in the same universe as Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s The Shining. As soon as I was cognizant of this information, my feelings toward it were already conflicted. I was not going to criticize the film without having seen it, however—but, now that I have, I feel that it is appropriate for me to proceed with what I am going to say.
Anna CheneyPublished 4 years ago in HorrorReed Alexander's Horror Review of 'The Devil's Rejects' (2005)
Rob lost the fucking plot. Plain and simple. House of 1000 Corpses (HO1kC) was a rare and special moment, and this sequel just didn't know what to do with its damn self. It's like Rob forgot who the characters were. Baby Firefly from the first movie was a deranged infantile psycho. This movie has her as a boring bully. Yeah she still has the childish lean, but it's almost too mature from the daffy character I loved from HO1kC. Otis Driftwood was a god damn artist (at least in his own mind). This movie paints him as a mindless brute, a simple thug with a level of ruthless efficiency. Hell, he gets rapey. He wasn't rapey in the first movie. Maybe a bit perverted, but not rapey. Captain Spaulding was the only one who got his fucking character right.
Reed AlexanderPublished 4 years ago in HorrorA Filmmaker's Review: 'Hereditary' (2018)
Hereditary (2018) is a movie I have watched many many times, all the way through, in individual parts, in sections and even backwards, forwards and inside out. I have tried over and over again to see what the hype was all about and, I have even tried telling myself repeatedly that I must love this movie because everyone else does. Let me explain why I finally gave it a two out of five rating.
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in HorrorA More Modern Version of the Original - 'Child's Play' (2019)
What’s your name? Andy. ‘Sup? Hi, Andysup. It seems like a lifetime ago since I saw the original film with the demonic pop Chucky dangerously swinging around with a razor-sharp butcher knife. Well, It’s not a hundred years, but thirty years is a long time as well. That’s how long it’s been since I went to get the VHS of this movie in the local video store. Apparently several sequels have been made after the initial release. Somehow I’ve missed that. Me and sequels. It remains an eternal struggle. Because there wasn’t anything better to choose from and I had nothing to do, I still took the risk and watched this modern version. Apart from the fact that the doll looks slightly different, has been given a different name and the reason for its malicious behavior has changed slightly, it was exactly as if I went back in time. Child’s Play has the same 80s horror mood.
'The Shining' Movie Review
I'm not into old movies, especially since I’m a Millennial with an extremely short attention span and the options on my Netflix, Amazon Prime and Now TV are overflowing, so much so that I often get stuck in the Infinite Browsing Mode, being repeatedly beaten by the phenomenon of Overchoice and end up quitting without watching anything.
A Filmmaker's Guide to Jordan Peele's 'Us' (2019) - Part 3
We can all agree that Jordan Peele's Us (2019) is quite possibly one of the best films of the last ten years and has potential to be one of the greatest movies of the 21st Century (but not the greatest, that space is saved for There Will Be Blood (2007), sorry Peele). Us (2019) is a brilliant movie in which subtleties reign supreme in exciting the audience's understanding of the film. Everyone guesses what everything means and so, we're going to look at some subtleties of our own and see how they're used to create meaning. This should be interesting seeing as, especially in horror film, these subtleties in usage are becoming evermore popular. If you'd like to start at the beginning of this series of articles, then please proceed to click here: https://vocal.media/horror/a-filmmaker-s-guide-to-jordan-peele-s-us-2019 - but you don't have to read the others in order to understand this article. They are entirely separate and can be read in any order at all. So once again, here's your spoiler alert if you haven't see the film. Let us get on with this article on the subtleties used in Jordan Peele's Us (2019).
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in HorrorA Filmmaker's Guide to Jordan Peele's 'Us' (2019) - Part 2
Jordan Peele is very well known for inventing new and exciting methods for horror, especially where his filmmaking skills are concerned. Now on his second movie, he has quite a good streak of horror films under his belt already with Get Out (2017) having an Oscar and Us (2019) on its way to having one. If you haven’t done so already then you probably want to read the first article in this series (https://vocal.media/horror/a-filmmaker-s-guide-to-jordan-peele-s-us-2019). This article isn’t going to continue from the previous one though - so you don’t have to read the one before to understand it. The thing I do want to cover is how Jordan Peele uses this film to establish his own signature style. These are the points we’ll go through to see how that works:
Annie KapurPublished 4 years ago in Horror